SPORTS
Football practice starting next week with an emphasis on safety
Monday is the beginning of a four-month journey for high school football teams around the state.
While temperatures are not expected to be as soul destroying as they were two weeks ago, no one can deny temperatures in the mid-to-upper 90 degrees is not hot, especially when you are sprinting around a football field in a helmet.
Two-a-days in Texas high school football are for the most part a thing of the past as University Interscholastic League passed more and more stringent rules since the mid 2000s to limit pre-season practices. This followed the trend at all levels of limiting football practices, from pro and college as well, in the names of player safety.
The main concern during this time is protecting players from heat stroke which can be fatal. Gone are the days where coaches held water from their players to “toughen them up.” Science shows this is a dangerous game to play and no player performs better when they are dehydrated.
Coaches and organizations know now athletes almost cannot drink enough water. Every 15 minutes is a required water break by UIL. Some schools have trainers with water bottles at every drill constantly filled with water.
At Saint Jo, they are monitoring how much water each player is drinking throughout practice to make sure they are drinking enough.
“We take a page out of the Louisiana State University manual,” Saint Jo Coach Derek Schlieve said. “They have each player bring a gallon jug of water and mark it off with different lines throughout the day so we can gauge where our athletes are at in the hydration process.”
Other schools hope educating their athletes on the importance of staying hydrated while also always having it on hand will let players take care of it themselves.
Still, every year there are reports around the country of players dying due to heat stroke. Players not conditioning themselves physically and getting used to working in the heat are more susceptible. Also, getting plenty of hydration in the days leading up to the first day and not just on the day is important.
A lot of teams do their best to avoid the summer heat as much as possible by scheduling their practices earlier or later in the day.
“I like to get the guys used to practicing early and with athletics being the first period of the day, it just works out for us,” Forestburg Coach Kyler Roach said.
“As much as we can, we are going to try to practice early,” Bowie Coach Dylan Stark said. “We have a trainer and we make sure we always have plenty of water available.”
Along with changes over the years, amount of days players practice in full pads has cut down to help players bodies stand up to the months of hitting. Teams this year cannot have their first full contact practice until after Friday, making Bowie move its Midnight Madness practice from Thursday to Friday.
This has been the trend at all levels to try to help cull injuries as much as possible. Opponents of this trend have argued this has led to what is perceived to be a decrease in tackling fundamentals due to less full contact practices, but coaches know they have no choice but to adjust their practicing habits as new rules are put into place.
“I think the good coaches take it in stride and they can adjust,” Schlieve said. “There is a lot of things you can do without hitting. It forces a coach to focus on things like the fundamentals instead of just lining up and scrimmaging. It can be a challenge, but we like to look at it as glass half full and gives us an opportunity to work on other things with our athletes.”
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.
The Nocona Indians wrapped up their first playoff berth since 2005 with a dominant win against Chico on Thursday at home.
The Indians won 10-0 in four and half innings due to run-rule to earn the district’s final playoff spot and break a nearly two decade drought.
Nocona was in a similar situation last year after beating Chico in the first game before losing twice more to the Dragons, once in the regular season finale and then in the play-in series.
The Indians won the first game earlier in the week 9-4, but knew they could play better. On Thursday they then proved it.
In the bottom of the first inning, Nocona got the scoring going as Wesley Murphey hit an RBI double. Two batters later, Landon Fatheree drove in two runs with a double.
Konnor Harrington followed with a groundout that scored another run as the Indians led 4-0.
In the second inning, Nocona kept up the pressure. Brody Langford drove in a run with a single. Later with the bases loaded, Caden Belcher was hit by a pitch that scored a run. A later passed ball allowed one more run to score as the Indians extended their lead to 7-0.
Nocona got one more run in the third inning. With the bases loaded, Wesley Murphey grounded into a fielder’s choice out that scored one run to make it 8-0.
The Indians got the final two runs they needed in the fourth inning. Walker Murphey and RJ Walker hit back-to-back RBI singles to put Nocona up 10-0.
Chico needed to score at least one run to prevent the game from ending early due to run-rule. Instead Walker Murphey completed the shutout performance by retiring the next three batters to end the game and the Dragon’s season.
The Indians won 10-0 and earned the district’s final playoff spot.
Wesley Murphey and Fatheree drove in two runs each to lead the team. Walker Murphey led the team with three hits. The team finished with 11 hits and drew six walks.
Walker Murphey also allowed zero runs and one hit while striking out five batters and walking none. The defense behind him committed only one fielding error.
Coach Zach Denson was beyond proud of this team for breaking the playoff drought.
“The amount of growth that they have shown throughout the year has been the most incredible I’ve seen in 13 years of coaching,” Denson said. “We went on a little skid in the middle of the year and that could have derailed our young team, but it actually brought us closer together as a unit.”
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.
The Bowie Jackrabbits were able to clinch the final playoff spot on Thursday with a senior night home win against Henrietta.
The Jackrabbits won 6-1 in a game where all of the offensive action happened in the first three innings for both teams.
Bowie came into the game needing to win. Failing to do so would mean setting up a series with the Bearcats for the final playoff spot. If the Jackrabbits just took care of business against a team they had already beaten once pretty easily then they could avoid that whole situation.
Henrietta knew it was playing for the future of its season and struck first. A one out double followed by a single two batters later put the Bearcats up 1-0 against Bowie’s top pitcher Edmond De Leon on the mound.
The offense responded in the same inning with a two-out rally. Troy Kesey hit a single and Hayden Rodriguez drew a walk. De Leon then hit a double to drive one run in.
Cooper Hammer was then hit a by a pitch to load the bases up. Rayder Mann then drew a walk that scored one run and the Jackrabbits led 2-1 before the next batter popped up for out three.
Bowie added to that lead in the second inning. Boston Farris led off with a triple. Tucker Jones then hit a groundball to second base that resulted in an error that allowed Farris to score and make it 3-1 for the Jackrabbits.
Bowie then extended the lead in the third inning. Hammer hit a one-out single. Mann and Cy Egenbacher followed with hits that resulted in fielding errors for the Bearcats. The Jackrabbits scored one run on the second error.
Farris then hit a single that drove in another run. After a strikeout, a wild pitch then allowed another runner to score as Bowie was up 6-1. Another strikeout ended the scoring for the Jackrabbits.
The next three and half innings saw neither team score runs, though both had several chances with two runners getting on at times.
Henrietta’s best chance came in the fifth inning with two singles, but De Leon and Bowie’s defense shut that down. De Leon retired the final seven batters he faced as the Jackrabbits won 6-1.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.
Last week all of the area schools competed in their district’s tennis tournament and several schools had athletes qualify for the regional tournament.
In the end, 10 athletes finished second or better at district to move on for a chance to qualify for state.
Unfortunately, no players from Bowie were able to break through and qualify.
Many faced early seeding opponents from tennis power Vernon that ended their tournament.
The highest finish for a Bowie player was Lily Hodges who placed fourth in girls singles.
From Nocona, one girl was able to break through as Kaygan Stone finished second in girls singles to qualify for regionals.
Stone has had a tough year, dealing with shoulder problems that shortened both her volleyball and basketball seasons, but she bounced back this spring to qualify for regionals in tennis.
Her teammate Melissa Segura was not so lucky, as she finished third in girls singles and just missed the cut, having to settle for an alternate spot
At the 1A tournament, several schools had multiple athletes in one division qualify.
From Saint Jo, last year’s state qualifying girl’s doubles team of Kyler Dunn and Taylor Patrick won the division.
They beat out the second place finisher and their teammates, the girl’s doubles team of Maxey Johnson and Bailey Nobile, who also qualified for regionals.
From Gold-Burg, Jimena Garcia and Alyson Rojas placed first and second in girls singles to move on to the regional tournament.
Other schools only had one team or individual.
From Forestburg, the mixed doubles team of Jesse Wadsworth and Alli Cisneros finished second as they qualified for regionals.
From Prairie Valley, Case Carpenter finished second in the boys singles division.
To read the full story and see pictures of all of the qualifiers, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.
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